Home Aloneis a classic Christmas movie that has found its way into many Top 10 lists. For one of the film’s stars, though, it has led to an all-year-round questioning about whether the movie caused him a lot of pain. That star isDaniel Stern, one half of the movie’s infamous “Wet Bandits” duo, who get more than they bargain for when they attempt to burgle the house of Macaulaky Culkin’s Kevin McCallister.
When you really strip back the premise ofHome Alone, the festive favorite becomes something of a dark tale of an abandoned child using a range of increasingly violent methods to try and take out a pair of robbers intent on getting their hands on him. However, it is all played very much for laughs, but, despite that, Stern recently revealed that he is still constantly asked whether it hurt to get hit in the face with a brick. Moreover, fans are usually surprised when he tells them that the bricks used as Kevin’s weapons inHome Alone 2: Lost in New Yorkwere not real.
While discussing his current series,For All Mankind,withComicBook.com, Stern revealed the questions that fans ask him the most. He said:
“I do get asked a lot, ‘Was that a real tarantula on your face? What’s Joe Pesci like? Did it hurt when you got hit in the face with the iron?’ That one, I guess getting hit in the face, ‘Did it hurt when you got hit in the face with the bricks?’ I think maybe that one. When people started asking me that, I went, ‘You know it’s fake, right? There’s a prop department. I didn’t get hit in the face with bricks.’ They’re like, ‘Oh.’
“The believability of it is wonderful, but it did concern me to a point when that movie first came out actually, that I started teaching a course in media literacy. Because I was like, are people really believe… I mean, here’s how movies are made, here’s how we make the show, and I’m glad you’re entertained and fun. But I didn’t really get hit in the face, you know that. To teach kids to separate a little bit became a mission of mine. But I think it enhances movie watching. So I guess that’s the long answer to: Don’t ask me if it hurt when I got hit in the face with the bricks.”
Related:Home Alone Is America’s Most Popular Christmas Movie According to New Poll
The Home Alone Franchise Continues to Expand
Released in 1990, Home Alonebecame one of the movies that turned a young Macaulay Culkin into a superstar. Reprisinghis role as Kevin McCallister inHome Alone 2, the youngster went through a rinse-and-repeat sequel that saw Kevin getting separated from his family as they rushed to jet off for the holiday season. This time he ended up in New York, but still managed to bump into his old adversaries, Harry and Marv, now known as the “Sticky Bandits.”
The film followed pretty much the same formula, with Kevin finding his way into an abandoned building that enabled him to once again set upa string of booby trapsfor the two hapless criminals.
While this was the end of the road for Culkin’s involvement in the franchise, more movies followed withHome Alone 3, Home Alone 4, Home Alone: Holiday Heistand then, with the franchise under the control of Disney following their acquisition of 20th Century Fox, 2021’sDisney+ movie,Home Sweet Home Alone. For anyone who believed that the franchise should have run out of steam long ago, the latest movie appeared to prove that, achieving just a 15% critics rating and 12% audience approval score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Whether Disney decides to put out even more sequels in the future or not, thanks to the Fox merger, fans can find all of theHome Alonemovies under the Disney+ umbrella this Christmas, and you too can relive Daniel Stern and Joe Pesci’s pain once again…just don’t ask Stern whether it really did hurt.
